1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus.
2. Related Art
In the related art, a printing method using an ink jet recording scheme is performed by causing ink droplets to fly and adhere onto a recording medium such as a paper. By innovative progress in an ink jet recording scheme technique in recent years, a printing method using the ink jet recording scheme has been used even in a field of high-definition image recording (image printing), in which photographs and offset printing have been used so far. Particularly, a technique for printing with solvent ink on a medium (recording medium) such as a film made of vinyl chloride for industrial use, which does not easily absorb ink, has been proposed.
For example, International Publication No. WO2004/094150 discloses an ink jet printer including: a printing unit which causes a print head to horizontally travel above a center of a platen; a transport unit which transport a medium, which has been delivered onto the platen, to a front side on the platen; a pre-heater which preliminarily heats the medium transported on a back portion of the platen toward a lower side of a travel route of the print head; a print heater which heats the medium, which has been delivered to the center of the platen on the lower side of the travel route of the print head, onto which ink droplets ejected from a nozzle of the print head are to be jetted; and a temperature control unit which controls heating temperature of the pre-heater and the print heater for heating the medium such that surface temperature of the medium, which has been delivered to the center of the platen, onto which solvent ink droplets ejected from the nozzle of the print head are to be jetted, ranges from 30° C. to 70° C. In addition, International Publication No. WO2004/094150 also discloses that main components of the solvent ink to be supplied to the print head, which occupies 40% by weight or more, consist of ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and propyleneglycol monomethylether acetate and that the ink jet printer further includes a refresh mode unit which moves the print head to a maintenance station, causes the nozzle of the print head to eject ink droplets as a trial, and thereby prevents clogging of solidified solvent ink in the nozzle of the print head.
However, the ink jet printer disclosed in International Publication No. WO2004/094150 has a problem that at least one of continuous recording stability and intermittent recording stability deteriorates.